A New Men’s Road One-Mile World Record!

On 27th April 2024, at adidas Adizero: Road to Records race series held at the adidas headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany, Emmanuel Wanyonyi ran a new world record in the men’s road one mile.

The 19-year old Kenyan’s time of 3:54.50 beat the previous record of 3:56.13 run by USA’s Hobbs Kessler. Kessler finished second at the Road to Records race in 3:56.18, with South Africa’s Ryan Mphalele third in a new national record of 3:56.45. The men’s one mile track world record is 3:43.13 ran by Morocco’s Hicham el Guerrouj in July 1999.

“Coming away with a new world record is an amazing feeling,” said Wanyonyi after the race. “Being surrounded by all of my peers and seeing the determination from everyone to push beyond boundaries of what’s been achieved previously – is an indescribable sight to put into words. Today was a tough one and I was up against a lot of great athletes, so I’m pleased to be able to walk away with this win and will hopefully be able to come back next year and uphold my title.” 

Adizero: Road to Records has become a flagship meet for adidas-sponsored athletes. It was launched in 2021 to continue the record-breaking legacy of the Adizero line of shoes, which began with the great Haile Gebrselassie who used Adizero Adios 1 to become the first person to run a 2:03 marathon. 

In 2021, the women’s only 10km and 5km world records were broken by Agnes Jebet Tirop (30:01) and Senbere Teferi (14:29). In 2022, five men ran below 27 minutes in the same 10km race, which had never happened before. And over the years, there have been numerous world leads, national records and regional records set at the event. 

At 2024’s races, 99 runners from 22 countries lined up in Herzogenaurach to run over four distances on a specially marked road course: 800m, one mile, 5km and 10km. All runners wore a special edition of the adidas Takumi San 10 inspired by the shoes worn by Agnes Tirop when she ran her 30:01 world record. She was tragically killed a month later. 

As well as Wanyonyi’s world record, there were a further 11 new records set in 2024, including an U20 World Record in the women’s 5km race (14:38 by Medina Eisa) and the one mile (4:30.90 by Nelly Chepchirchir), and nine national records. In the women’s 10km race, Agnes Jebet Ngetich finished two seconds off Tirop’s women’s only 10km world record in 30:03.

The adidas Adizero: Road to Records has become one of the top annual events for seeing some of the world’s best runners chasing fast times.